Three policemen, prophet held over alleged murder

The death of a 20-year old man after an alleged torture by the police has landed three policemen and a prophet in trouble. JUDE ISIGUZO reports.

Three policemen attached to the ‘B’ Division Akure of the Ondo State Police Command and a popular prophet are currently been detained for the alleged murder of Mohammed Oluwatobi Badmus (20).

The deceased was the only son of a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a popular hotelier, Raheem Afolayemi Badmus.

Young Badmus was allegedly tortured to death by policemen on the orders of Prophet Bisi Adedugbagbe of the Celestial Church of God, who alleged that the deceased stole a phone belonging to a member of his church.

Late Badmus was allegedly dragged to the police station by the prophet on the allegation of breaking and stealing at his church.

The family is also alleging that the police are demanding for a sum of N150,000 (one hundred and fifty thousand naira) to carry out an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death, a responsibility they claim ought to be borne by either the state our the suspects.

But the police are saying that since the family was alleging that their men killed the deceased, it was their responsibility to provide the funds for the autopsy to ascertain their claim.

The family had alleged that Adedugbagbe had ordered the policemen led by one Corporal Adesola Awodeyi to torture late Badmus to confess to stealing a phone from his church.

It was gathered that Awodeyi and the other two policemen beat and tear gassed Badmus until he collapsed and became unconscious.

A family source said: “Once he became unconscious, the policemen at the station then hurriedly wanted him released to his family because they suspected he could die.

“Corporal Awodeyi and Prophet Bisi should be held responsible for the death of Badmus. He was tear-gassed at close range, after he had been beaten mercilessly at a mini-detention room in the station. The beating and torture with tear gas was to coerce Badmus to confess to stealing the phone.

“He refused to confess to the crime because he did not do it and he was battered as a result. Some of the other officers at the police station heard the scream of the boy. They advised Corporal Awodeyi and the other two officers to take it easy with the boy, but they refused.

“The prophet was present during the torture, but he showed no compassion for the boy. All he wanted was for the boy to confess to the crime of stealing a phone. He was urging the corporal to keep pummeling Badmus. The prophet was bragging that he would deal with Badmus unless he confessed and returned the phone he allegedly stole”.

A police source said “We have no legal record of the boy in our station now because they didn’t even ask him to write a statement. The statement should have been the first thing, but Corporal Awodeyo forgot to initiate that. Already he has put himself into trouble for that.

“We can’t deny the fact that he was brought here. He was actually here but we have no legal record backing up his presence.”

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of the station had asked for Badmus’ statement as soon as he received a petition on his torture but none was produced.

Bakare Asani, a lawyer representing the Badmus family, in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, accused the police officers at the ‘B’ Division police station, Akure, of murdering Badmus.

The petition alleged that the deceased sustained internal injuries as a result of the gruesome torture by the police.

A medical report issued by a hospital said Badmus suffered serious internal injuries. The report added that the victim had inhaled a chemical that caused serious bodily damage.

“The boy was brought in here and he was breathing through the help of an oxygen mask and we attended to him immediately after they had collected a card,” said a staff at the hospital. He added that the deceased “had inhaled a heavy dose of the substance which had already damaged his brain and caused serious disorder in his system before he died.”

Father of the deceased Raheem Badmus said: “My son was hale and hearty before his untimely death. He came home to break the Ramadan fast with me during the week at my residence. I even spoke to him concerning some unholy behaviours of his during the fasting period and promised to deal with him, before he ran away from the house to his uncle’s place in Okuta Elerinla Estate.

“He was filled with life and expectations when we broke the fast together. Certainly, death was not one of the tasks of my only son, not even cheap death from the supposed law enforcement agents who tortured him with large dose of chemical substance, which he inhaled and later passed out.

“So -me of my friends that called him over the unfortunate incident found it difficult to break the news to me and it was later I was told what transpired on the day.

“The elder sister Oluwaseun told me that she was in the house when she was called by one of our neighbors who asked her to come to Danjuma Street where she was told that they wanted to see her because her brother (Tobi) had stolen a smart phone in a prophet’s church.

“Truly, they discovered such type of phone was in Tobi’s possession and they inquired how he managed to get the phone since he was never at the church.”

He added that Tobi was taken to the police station along with his uncle, Sola, and was tortured before being released, but that he died some hours later.

Oluwaseun, the late Badmus sister who was with him when the police came for him confirmed his arrest and torture at the police station. She said: “I was at home when some people close to prophet Bisi called me, that my younger brother, Tobi, had stolen a smart phone from his church. It was surprising, and I told him my brother can’t do such a thing. Immediately I called my mum’s uncle (brother Sola) where Tobi was staying to inquire about the allegation and if he saw any phone with Tobi and he confirmed he saw a phone with him and had already collected the phone”.

She explained that she told the clergyman that his uncle had confirmed finding such a phone with late Badmus and that she had called him on his phone to meet her at the prophet’s church.

She said that though the late Badmus agreed to meet with her at the church, the prophet was impatient and advised that they go and meet him wherever he was.

“On getting to Tobi’s place, it was argument all through between the two, with claims that the phone doesn’t belong to the prophet. The prophet now told us that he had already informed the police at B division Oke Aro about the matter. It was at that point, Tobi suggested we move down to the Police station, where he believed the matter would be resolved”.

She further stated that three police officers, led by a corporal with the name tag ‘Adesola Awodeyo’ held

several talks with the prophet at the front of the Police station before they arrested her late brother.

When they were dragging him away, she said she heard use of the term, ‘Baptismal Room,’ and believed that was where he was tutored.

“Close to an hour later, the prophet and the cohort (Policemen) with whom he carried out the plot came

out with my brother with his face swollen, vision blurred and his eyes balls reddish and bulging and couldn’t compose himself while he can’t also stand on his legs”.

She alleged that instead of the policemen to take him back inside the station, he was handed over to them with directions that they go home, adding that they drove back home in the prophet’s vehicle amidst argument and anger over the maltreatment in the station.

She said when the prophet dropped them and departed, her brother’s condition worsened. He was crying, vomiting and holding his stomach and complaining of a headache.

“I picked my phone and called prophet Bisi who pleaded we take him (Tobi) to the hospital and that he

would join us there,” she said.

He was rushed to the State Specialist Hospital Akure, but that he could not be attended to because of

the ongoing strike of doctors, and later to Liberty Hospital in Oluwatuyi quarters also in Akure, where doctors directed them to their family hospital.

At Hope Land Hospital, Lafe junction in Akure, where Badmus died, a nurse who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: “The boy was brought in here and he was breathing through the help of

oxygen and we attended to him immediately after they had collected a card. Report with us showed that he had inhaled a heavy dose of chemical substance which has already damaged his brain and caused a serious disorder in his body system before he died”.

Days after Tobi’s death, Oluwaseun said the police, in an effort to cover up the case called her to come over to the station to write a statement for the deceased because they had forgotten to get him to write one, but that she declined.

Spokesperson to the Ondo State Command, Oluwole Ogodo confirmed the incident. He said the deceased was brought to the station for stealing and that he confessed to it, adding that it was because he refused to return the other items that he took from the church that he was brought to the station.

The spokesperson said from investigation, the deceased was released by the police around 10am and developed ill health around 6pm. He said if he had indeed been tortured as his family was claiming there was no way he could have survived up till that time.

Ogodo said the three policemen and prophet linked to the murder of Badmus have been arrested and they are been detained, pending investigation.

On the issue of autopsy, he said it is the family’s responsibility to pay as they are the ones alleging and therefore should be able to go to any extent to prove it.